Saturday, March 22, 2014

God's Three-Pronged Closing Argument

I "randomly" flipped to Job 40 for my quiet time. God answers Job after Job has questioned Him as well as sought advice from others regarding his suffering. God lays it down with 3 arguments.

1. He Is. He is the only God. "I Am." He has brought down kings and He alone can save. He is the ultimate law-giver and determines justice. He is worshiped in Heaven.

He could've just said, "I'm God. You're not. The end." However, he uses examples of various creatures that Job had either heard about or seen in the wild whose attributes point back to him. Romans 1:20 states that God's attributes can be see in His creation, He was using additional pieces of evidence to make a solid case even more watertight.

2.  He is strong. The behemoth is apparently the most powerful animal on the planet. Its tail is the size of a tree trunk and has enormous legs and a skeleton stronger than the strongest metals at the time. Yet God is stronger than this creature.

3. He is untamable.  God uses the example of the Leviathan which was a water dwelling creature that would be impossible to catch due to its ability to fight with a fishing crew. It would be like the guys on "The Deadliest Catch" trying to catch a shark in the middle of a feeding frenzy. God emphasizes His strength again by mentioning the Leviathan's strong outer coat of hard plates.

Job obviously repents.

Of course, I had to ask myself, so what to make of this exchange? The plaintiff has lodged his complaint against the defendant who responded with a watertight argument in His favor. Is God just up there saying, "I'm powerful, you're not, and I do what I want, and poor humans mwahahahaaa!" No. Because within the argument of "I am," He implies that Job's right hand cannot save him, but God's right hand can save Job. Taking the 'case' as a whole, we see that God and the devil are in a spat and the devil raises an argument: Job only worships You because You give him good things.  God allows Satan to pull away everything Job has dear: his children, his wealth, and his health. Satan was watching as all this was going on. He would be the jury that decides the facts while God affirmed His law.

Job worshipped God ultimately because He is, He is powerful, He is untamable, and He is good. The verdict Satan had to concede was this: God Is. He is real and that is why He is worshiped.

No comments: